The subject matter disclosed herein relates to an optical encoder and an optical encoder with a plurality of index markings.
Optical encoders are devices that may be used for measuring angular displacement. Typically these devices detect shifts in fringe patterns of diffracted light. High accuracy is often a requirement for these devices. Many conventional devices have problems that limit their accuracy, reliability, calibration and ease of mass production. They are generally expensive when fine resolution is required.
In some applications it is desirable to not only measure the amount of rotation, but also the orientation or angular position of the encoder relative to a home or zero position. To determine the orientation, some optical encoders have used an index mark that may be detected by an optical sensor. The index mark in combination with the fringe pattern allows for the determination of both the amount of rotation and the orientation/position of the optical encoder. Since the orientation may not be initially known, the user may have to rotate the encoder to allow the detection and registration of the index mark. It should be appreciated that the registration of the index mark requires less than one rotation.
Accordingly, while existing optical encoders are suitable for their intended purposes the need for improvement remains, particularly in providing an optical encoder that improves and reduces the time for registering the orientation of the optical encoder.